Tomorrow Never Dies

Tomorrow Never Dies may be my favorite of the Brosnan films, even though i dislike all of the characters and the story. I wish that i could take the best moments of the Brosnan era and mix up the characters and story element to make one big average movie.

My excitement for Tomorrow Never Dies starts at the very beginning of the film. That's right, the famous James Bond 007 Gunbarrel Sequence. It is only like 15 second long, but is always the highlight of going to see any Bond movie in the theater. It is the film's way of saying, what you are about to watch is set in the history of the franchise. Since Goldeneye was the first 007 film i saw in the theater, you can imagine my delight hearing David Arnold's music played at the beginning as opposed to Eric Serra. David Arnold took elements of John Barry's orchestrations of the James Bond theme and did his own Gun Barrel motif. Hearing an actual orchestra play something that sounded like classic Barry was so refreshing. An i knew that this time around they were going to do things right, if not better.

The movie on the whole isn't very good. Go figure, but i do like that there isn't a ton of CG. There are some great sequences and all of the action scenes are well done, with the exception of the motorcycle chase, which feels slow and awkward. The movie also suffers from a huge lag in the third act. Not that the first two acts are fast paced, but it gets starts to get way overbearing. It doesn't help that Jonathan Price puts in a horrible performance as the main villain, Elliot Carver. On top of the shitty villain, you have two of my least favorite bond girls of all time, Michelle Yeoh and Teri Hatcher. I do not like either of them in this movie and the new characters are what usually make or break a bond film. At this point, we have already seen 007 in seventeen adventures, so a lot of the entertainment value lies in the supporting cast, which was just heinous.

Judi Dench returns in the role of "M" and once again talks about her balls. Why would they have two back to back Dench Testicle jokes? It's baffling.

Over all the movie is just so-so. So considering that this is my favorite of the Brosnan films, really shows you what you are in for on the next two outings.

Tomorrow Never Dies, although has an incredibly slick look, great action and an amazing score by David Arnold, is still forgettable and boring.

★ ★ ½